I had the opportunity to read at Kootnz Elementary School on Wednesday Oct. 5th. It was a warm afternoon around 1:00 when I got to the school. Little did I know what a warm greeting I would receive inside the building.
After checking in at the office I was greeted by the librarian, Ms Tucker. This is Mrs. Tucker’s first year at Kootnz and already the principal, Mr. Dunlap, told me she is making sure students are exposed to many new and different activities. Ms Tucker had asked me to come and read my first book, Tired of My Bath, to the kindergarten through second grade students.
After getting my materials ready, I had a few minutes to talk to Ms Tucker. She told me she had prepared the students for my visit by doing research on the internet. I was quite impressed because no on had ever told me that before. She said the classes had actually gone to my website, dicymcculloughbooks.com., and they also googled my name. I was interested in what they found because I wanted to learn more about me too.
When it was time to start the presentations, the children came into the media center quiet and orderly. There were two presentations, with each one lasting about thirty minutes. I began by reading Tired of My Bath and shared that I had set the words in the story to a little melody. I briefly shared the story line from my latest book, Tired of School, and called attention to the fact that more characters had been added with Louie, the dog, finding a friend. At the end of each presentation the children had questions with one child wanting to know how long I had been writing. I told him I started writing poetry at the death of my dad five years ago. After a few years of writing just poetry, I decided to try short stories, which eventually led into writing human interest stories for a local newspaper, the Salisbury Post. The day at Kootnz ended on a good note with several children winning a free autographed book.
Thanks to the students and teachers for asking me to read and especially to Ms Tucker, the librarian, for preparing the children. I know there must have been a young author listening in the media center on October 5th and someday he or she will be reading to another young author. How exciting is that?
